The standard litter in use is the NATO litter or a modified version of the NATO litter. A common feature between the NATO litter and most modified versions is a two pole structure running in parallel to each other the length of an area to carry and support a patient such as nylon as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 showing the prior art. Usually, these litters are used in evacuating injured and/or wounded patients from their location of injury (or far forward facility) to a care facility for treatment. During transport, it is vital to monitor a patient's current medical status to allow medical personnel to attempt to maintain the status quo, which preferable is sufficiently stable to allow for transport. Civilian emergency responders may use litters developed by Stryker Corporation. In either case, a need continues to exist for an efficient and effective way to attach medical equipment to a transportable litter.
Prior to my earlier development of critical care platforms for litters, litters did not allow for the attachment of medical monitoring equipment given their structure of two poles and a place for the patient, which usually is canvas or a similar material. Instead of two individuals moving a patient, it would take at least one additional person to move alongside the litter to move the equipment connected to the patient. Or the extra person may not be needed, because the equipment is put on top of the patient, which is not advisable in most medical situations given the weight of the equipment and notwithstanding the weight, the equipment may shift around on the patient and/or fall off of the patient and the litter. None of these possibilities associated with using the patient as the carrying platform are beneficial to treating the patient.
The present invention is an improvement over my past inventions as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,743 “Critical care platform for litters”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,922 “Critical care platform for litters”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,493,890 “Critical care platform for litters” all of which addressed the above problems and incorporated herein by reference. One substantial drawback to my prior devices, as may be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, has been that they sacrificed a certain amount of access to the patient once the devices were placed on the litter.
Notwithstanding the usefulness of the above-described approaches, a need still exists for improvements in lightweight attachment for litters that will allow particular equipment to be transported with the patient without requiring another individual to carry the equipment beyond the two individuals carrying the litter.